We must eat too much

[lynypixie]

I haven't tried yet, but we are taking DxDP for this trip. My kids are more 6 small meals rather than 3 big ones, and I have a 2 years old who will share meals with the other two. This way, the DxDP is just perfect for us (my man is a meat eater, and can't wait to have real meals there, he hates cheap theme park CS)

So, I'd be very surprised to have credits left.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

We do the regular plan and occassionally have a few leftover snacks but not much. First of all - we bring a couple boxes of cereal in our luggage - between that and a half a cinnamon loaf from MS Bakery - that is our breakfast most mornings. Second - I think it is MUCH easier to have 'extra' credits the larger your party is. So if you are 2 adults - much more difficult. This is because as a family with 2 adults and 2 kids - we rarely order 4 CS meals at a time. We will share 2 or 3 (getting large pizza, 2 drinks and 2 desserts at resort food court for 2 CS credits feeds our entire family of 4 for only 2 of our credits). I will also do things like snacks for lunch - split some popcorn, smoothie and muffin or ice cream.

I don't share meals entirely for the reason of stretching credits - mostly it's because if we didn't we would let too much go to waste. We already end up throwing out cookies and those little tins of chocolate cake from the CS desserts by the end of the week.

I never have credits left. Sometimes I end up using my snack credits for bottles of water if I notice that I'm not using enough of them. I know a lot of people probably think that's a waste, but I only get the DP if it is free so I'm not losing anything and it beats paying 2.50 and 3.00 out of pocket for water.

I think it depends on the age/appetite level of your kids as well. If they are small and/or don't eat much, you can share your meals with them (or have them share with each other) and still have plenty of food. We weren't on DDP last trip, but we shared 2 meals among the 3 of us most of the time.

I'm thinking folks who share meals usually don't have teenagers! My DS15 can eat his whole CS meal and half of mine! Last time we were on the Regular Dining Plan (1 CS, 1 TS, 1 Snack), we used up every single credit, paid for a few snacks OOP and one TS meal OOP (partly because DD13 wanted to go to 2 TS credit CRT). We sometimes used snack credits for milk, water or sodas...DS can drink a gallon of milk a day which adds up. I will say that I found two desserts a day (included in the CS and TS meals) was too much dessert for us. By the end of our 4 day trip, we had quite a few uneaten desserts in our frig!

 

[BuzzandWoodyMom]

I'm thinking folks who share meals usually don't have teenagers! My DS15 can eat his whole CS meal and half of mine! Last time we were on the Regular Dining Plan (1 CS, 1 TS, 1 Snack), we used up every single credit, paid for a few snacks OOP and one TS meal OOP (partly because DD13 wanted to go to 2 TS credit CRT). We sometimes used snack credits for milk, water or sodas...DS can drink a gallon of milk a day which adds up. I will say that I found two desserts a day (included in the CS and TS meals) was too much dessert for us. By the end of our 4 day trip, we had quite a few uneaten desserts in our frig!

I agree with this. My husband and kids would look at me like I had two heads if I said we were going to split meals! lol!

 

[loricdietzel]

We definitely used all of our credits!!! I am looking at our upcoming trip and counting what we will have to pay OOP for! (especially since we have one 2- credit meal.) We definitely ran out of snack credits last trip with several days to go. Of course, we had a little one not on the dining plan so he used some of them because he wanted all the snacks, too. I think we will be paying OOP for a lot of his meals since he will want his own but still isn't old enough for the dining plan. Of course, we are going for free dining so buying a few things is not a big deal, but I don't get how people have all these credits left over, either!

 

[SillyFamily]

I dont think DxDP is just for super eaters. Although I have had days were i didnt wanna see food anymore and we would do a meal break (just fruit), I think DxDP is a great way of doing disney with tons of value. I found a few rules help out a huge amount

1.Dont feel the need to clean your plate.
I tried this the first time and it will literally kill you. Order an app and just taste a bite or 3. I love trying new things and many times the app is my favorite part of the meal. We often ignore the sides that come (I do try to eat my veggies but i dont worry about the starches) with the entree if the app was especially good for example Kona cafe.

2. Take deserts to go.
Every restaurant that i have been to will pack your desert to go. Get something shelf stable and keep on playing. We have a car so we just hop back to our resort and put it in the fridge.

3. Snacks are great to bring home.
We rarely use our snacks unless we are there for the F&W festival. Okay we do splurge on an ice cream or cream horn occasionally. for the most part we take hundreds of dollars in snacks home to eat later. Chocolate from the caramel shop travels soo well. At $4-6 per snack we make out very well there, and have treats that last for weeks and weeks. For example our 14 day trip for Jan 2013 we'll have 56 SC. We'll use about 6 of them during our stay and bring home 50 snacks. That is a $250 value at about $5 a SC. They are also great gifts.

4.Order something other than soda to drink
We love to order bottled water. At $6.50 a bottle evian is a great value and a good tasting bottle of water. Florida tap water is icky. Each person is entitled to one bottle. Servers balk at this but it worked every time for my trip. Juice, milk and even milkshakes make for a better value than soda. Milkshakes are very filling so order with care.

This is our standard DxDP day.

Breakfast (The Wave or Capt Grill)
Buffet ~$16.99 +tax
Bottle of Evian ~ $6.50 +tax
Total $23.49 +tax

Lunch (The Wave)
App BB Chilli $8.49 + tax
Entree - Bison Burger 14.99 +tax
Desert to go $8.49 +tax
Bottle of Evian ~ $6.50 +tax
Total $37.47 +tax

Dinner (Boatwrights)
App BB Shrimp $10.49 +tax
Entree Grilled Pork Chop $21.99 +tax
Desert to go pecan pie $5.49 +tax
Glass of juice ~ $3.99 +tax
Total $41.96 +tax

Daily total $102.92 +tax which is about 11% for a total of $114.24

Deserts usually end up a midnight snack after a long day of walking, shopping, riding, and some napping thrown in for fun.

Now the question becomes did we over eat or over spend.

For breakfast -I love the fresh fruit and pastries. I spend $10-13 for cracker barrel so its not that over priced. Did I over eat, you be the judge I get a plate of fresh fruit usually several varieties including fresh berries. Then a croissant 2 sausages (yes i love the chicken ones they have) and a cup of yogurt.

For lunch - I dont think a cup of soup and a burger is over eating in most peoples book. Yes I would have been happy just with the burger some would have been fin with just the soup, but I dont think your pigging out at this point

For dinner - I ordered the shrimp but you could easily switch it for a salad. The portion sizes are large. You could easily share this and add a signature dinner a few times during your trip. We cant cause my dsis is a very picky eater and we never choose the same food. Am I really a super eater having a salad or 10 shrimp with a pork chop??

Desert is usually not eaten often but even if you take it off your price/value you are still ahead of the game.

I did not order the most expensive meals, nor did i do all character meals.My savings was still about 15-20%. If you add a few character meals or signatures your savings could easily be 30-40%.

The DxDP isnt for everyone but it can definitely be a real value for those looking to relax and enjoy their dining experience on vacation. If you wanna go commando or save as much as possible it may not be the best value for you. We sure find it to be a great value.


With careful planning thanks to the dis board we always use all of our credits!!

 

[gtpoohbear]

I found a few rules help out a huge amount

1.Dont feel the need to clean your plate.
I tried this the first time and it will literally kill you. Order an app and just taste a bite or 3. I love trying new things and many times the app is my favorite part of the meal. We often ignore the sides that come (I do try to eat my veggies but i dont worry about the starches) with the entree if the app was especially good for example Kona cafe.

This is the big one for us. I almost never finish my meal, but I rarely do when we eat out at home either. So I don't really get why people say they feel so stuffed on the DxDP. Just because the food is available doesn't mean you have to force yourself to eat it! I don't eat any more at Disney than I normally would, but our meals at WDW are far more enjoyable than typical eating out meals at home (which we do a LOT of, more than we should, lol!) It's not something we would be willing to give up for the sake of getting in one more round on Splash Mountain, for sure.

Now, not to say I am a proponent of wasting food, but especially on vacation, it isn't something I'm going to lose sleep over. For dessert, DD and I will usually order one, but mostly just to try a few bites, I can almost never finish it but that's okay. Again, no one if forcing me to. And DH won't touch anything sweet with a 10-foot pole, so he never orders dessert. But he loves his apps, so if we were on the regular plan we'd end up paying OOP for those every time anyway.

 

[disneychristmasx3]

Credits left over.... I wish. We will have DDP for the 2nd time this Christmas and it was a blessing last time we were lucky enough to go during the promo. Before that - we had to be vigilant about what the kids could order so we didn't have to mortgage the house to pay for it. This time we have the public offer for free DDP again. It is great and being as no other offers work for us as we are forced to go during the holidays or not at all due to competition schedules and school but just like last time we will still have to buy breakfast OOP every day (except 1). As you can tell by my signature my children are not only disney adults, but adults by pretty much anyone's standards. My 2 boys are athletes (a runner and a swimmer) who definitely need a meal to themselves, and will still be looking for a snack. We will need all of our credits plus breakfast OOP. We will also be paying for at least 1 TS OOP. I hope I can convince the boys that a children's breakfast plate be enough to tide them over for a couple hours to save a few dollars per day. I always end up "donating" all of my snack credits since I don't burn the calories like a competitive athlete...again, I wish.

 

[madelyn]

2 sisters and my 10 year old son just returned from their 4 night trip and managed to use all their credits (regular dining plan) but had too many. Their flight on arrival day was late so they used just 2 adult counter service credit the first night and paid out of pocket for a kids' meal for my son. They did that a few times (paid out pocket for kids' meals) so that left more adult credits that needed to be used. They used 6 adult table service credits at a castle lunch but still had excess credits. My son ate the majority of the snacks, so I think so many snacks and desserts made him too full to eat his meals! On the last day, they had 5 counter service credits to use. 2 went towards breakfast platters. My son and 1 sister had an earlier flight so the sister with the later flight ended up eating one meal at the hotel before her magical express pick-up and used the remaining credits on food to take with her to the airport. She ended up not getting home until 11pm that day so had plenty of time to eat!